Apple Stock Rewind Buzz: Wins, Woes, The Fight, The Gift and Risk

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to everything important that moved the needle for Apple’s stocks this week:

Monday

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) managed to continue its run into the green from Friday by closing just above 1 percent higher on Monday at $479.93. There was some more discussion about the possibility of a lower-cost iPhone from the company, with two conflicting viewpoints. Meanwhile, on Tuesday chief executive Tim Cook is scheduled to speak at Goldman Sachs’ technology conference before sitting with Michelle Obama in the First Lady’s box for the President’s State of the Union address later in the night.

Here are the top stories that created the buzz around Apple on the day:

A Low-Cost iPhone or Not?

Topeka Capital’s Brian White wrote in a research note that Apple was almost certain to unveil a cheaper iPhone device around the mid-year mark. The research firm discovered several unreleased iPhone prototypes during its market research at the end of last year and added that it believed the device was set to give Apple a bigger play in several high-potential markets, including China, Brazil, Russia, and India. But White’s assertions, the details of which can be read here, were in opposition to comments from Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves.

Hargreaves said the possibility of the existence of a new, low-cost iPhone was a bad one for Apple and will not only result in a loss of status for the company, but also the cannibalization of its much higher-margin sales. Such a device would violate Apple’s “core operating principles,” according to Hargreaves, because there was not “a single thing that a low-priced iPhone would do better than the current iPhones…” (Read more)